Kurt Mix, a drilling and project engineer on BP's Deepwater Horizon, has been charged with obstruction of justice for deleting a string of texts that detailed the failed efforts to plug the oil leak which ultimately spilled millions of gallons of oil and natural gas into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The content of the messages -- which were recovered by investigators -- also tell a tale of how BP's public statements at the time of the ongoing crisis were not in line with the internal information that company employees, like Mix, were sharing with their superiors.

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrest on Tuesday and promised continuing pursuit of those it deemed criminally liable: "